Russia refrain UNSC discussion over Syrian chemical weapon issue

UNITED NATIONS: Russia will refrain from the monthly UN Security Council discussions over the chemical weapons issue of Syria due to the "lack of substance" in the topic, said an envoy.

"It is a pity that this year begins with another briefing on the Syrian chemical file. Those meetings are getting on nerves due to their complete lack of added value," Xinhua news agency quoted Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's first deputy permanent representative to the UN, as syaing.

Thursday morning's meeting on the Syrian nuclear weapons issue was the first open event of the Security Council for 2023.

"Alongside with other council members, we underscored repeatedly that there is no point in raising this topic every month just 'for show' to serve the internal political tasks of a number of Western states. This devaluates the discussion in the council and undermines authority of this body.

"In view of the fact that Director-General of the OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) Mr. F. Arias always comes up with unrealistic pretexts to justify his no-show in the Security Council for a briefing and gets by with issuing identical reports every month, we call to respect the time of Security Council members and optimize the schedule of such meetings.

"Unless this is done, we see no point entering in a discussion on this subject matter," said Polyanskiy.